Millennial icon Bill Nye the Science Guy, whom this reporter once had the immense pleasure of interviewing, currently serves as the CEO of the Planetary Society. There, he’s worked to raise awareness about the Curiosity Rover’s mission to Mars, as well as advised Elon Musk on what the space research community needs out of a commercial space program. (“We need cheap access to orbit,” Mr. Nye told us in an interview. “It’s the key first step. Getting to orbit right now is too expensive.”)
Mr. Nye is working to raise awareness about NASA’s gutted space exploration budget. Yesterday, his team published a YouTube video of Mr. Nye urging viewers to send a letter to the President, asking him to restore the budget.
“Even if you don’t like the president, we’d like you to write to him because he’s the guy that can make that last thing happen to make sure that the budget for planetary science gets restored,” Mr. Nye says in the video. “We’re talking about missions to Mars and Europa. Scientists have gone back through the budget, they’ve reconfigured things, they’ve come up with a budget to explore Mars that will be acceptable to everyone. But we have to push that last little bit.”
The 2013 budget includes a proposed 21 percent cut to NASA’s already eviscerated planetary sciences budget, and the Planetary Society hopes to convince lawmakers to reverse this decision. You can get more information, as well as a form letter to send to the president, here.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUikIIdG5Ts]
